At about 2 pm local time my sky had cleared well enough to make an attempt to track planet Venus down during this early afternoon. The low humidity high pressure atmosphere that was overhead made this observation possible. Venus was about 13Â° North and 3Â° to the East of the sun and I knew I could safely block the sun from reaching my eyepiece using a large pine tree to block out the solar disk. Venus at the time of the observation was about -4th magnitude and 2.5 % illuminated. The disk of the planet was about 59â€ of arc in diameter and only 0.29 AU (27 million miles) from earth.

Sketching:

4.25"f/6 Newtonian 6mm eyepiece 107xFor this sketch I used: blue construction paper, 11"x 9", a white Conte' pastel crayon and a blending stump, for templating the planet as a circle I used a lens cap. Brightness and contrast were slightly increased (+2) after scanning.

Thank you Jay and Mark,Observing conditions for the past 2 weeks have been very poor at night. This day time window to capture Venus was brief. After this weekend I am hopeful conditions for observing will return.

Thank you much. You don't need much aperture or magnification on Venus during the day but very clear skies are a must. I got the blue paper for daytime moon sketching. I am still waiting for my opportunity.